USModernist Radio - Architecture You Love

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#140/Late Great Architecture Magazines: Editor John Morris Dixon Apr 22, 2020

Show notes

In a mid-century world way before Instagram, people kept up with the latest buildings primarily through architecture magazines. Although a few titles like Architecture Record are still going, there were many exceptional publications that in their heyday from 1945-1970 reached millions of readers across the US and the World. Today we welcome John Morris Dixon, the last editor of one of those great magazines, Progressive Architecture. Dixon has interviewed and written about just about every Modernist architect we've ever mentioned on the show, and his books include Paul Rudolph: Inspiration and Process in Architecture, Urban Spaces 1&2, Progressive Architecture's Twenty Years of Design Awards, and Pencil Points Reader.

#139/Modernism Week: Reviving Craig Ellwood with Barton Jahncke + Diane Bald, Joe Dangaran + Brett Woods Apr 13, 2020

Show notes

Craig Ellwood was one of the most exciting people in American architecture. He took Los Angeles by storm and no one since has fully captured his personal style or his incredible story - but that's on the way. Although he took structural engineering courses at UCLA, Ellwood was not a licensed architect, but that did not matter to him or to his clients. Ellwood was a true design genius. Ellwood could sell, too. He had a red Ferrari (among other great cars) and was a perfect fit with the celebrity culture of Los Angeles. He was a master of promotion. Derided by the architecture profession of which he was formally not a part, he rose to public fame when three of his houses were included in the iconic Case Study House series for Arts and Architecture Magazine. His houses are still incredibly prized today.

From poolside at the swanky Hotel Skylark, host George Smart interviews noted Ellwood restorer Barton Jahncke and his client, Ellwood owner Diane Bald, and later on George talks with architects of another Ellwood restoration, Joe Dangaran and Brett Woods.

#138/Skidmore Owings + Merrill, with Nick Adams + Kate Reggev plus Musical Guest Valerie Wood Apr 06, 2020

Show notes

Skidmore Owings and Merrill, which sounds like a law firm your uncle Mitch might work at, created international airports, stunningly tall skyscrapers, universities, flagship museums, and landmark corporate headquarters since the 1930's. In its heyday it was the Amazon of design firms, one of the largest in the world, with projects such as the 1973 Sears/Willis Tower in Chicago, the 2010 Burj Khalifa in Dubai, international airport terminals in Chicago and Kansas City, Lever House, the 2013 World Trade Center, the new Penn Station, the Waldorf Astoria restoration, the first net-zero-energy school in New York City, and even the design of Moon Village, a concept for the first permanent lunar settlement. It's a global architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm, founded in Chicago by architects Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings and engineer John O. Merrill.

Today we talk about SOM with Nick Adams, author of Gordon Bunshaft and SOM: Building Corporate Modernism and architect, preservationist, and design writer Kate Reggev. Later on, George and Tom welcome returning special musical guest, jazz singer Valerie Wood.

#137/Modernism Week 2020: Daniel Libeskind + Nelda Linsk + Alison Martino Mar 30, 2020

Show notes

Nowhere in the world celebrates Modernism better than Palm Springs, California. Every February, they have a huge architecture and design festival called Modernism Week, which actually lasts 11 days. This was the fifth year USModernist has been at Modernism Week, talking poolside at the USModernist Compound, aka the hip Hotel Skylark, with nearly all the keynote speakers, authors, and special guests. When modern-day Dorothy's kick their red ruby slippers together, they don't go to Kansas, they land next to in Frank Sinatra's pool in Palm Springs. Modernism Week is a dazzling spectacle of mid-century architecture, martinis, lectures, art galleries, shopping, nonprofit benefit events, architecture documentary premieres, amazing parties at incredible houses, brilliantly curated house tours, detailed art and architecture exhibits, and much more. Today we kick off 2020 Modernism Week coverage with architect Daniel Libeskind, known for the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, the master plan for the World Trade Center reconstruction and memorial, and the Danish Jewish Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark. He's one of the world's most highly regarded architects and someone people can trust to work with projects of great meaning and significance, especially where loss in involved.

Next, host George Smart visits with the Queen of Palm Springs, the woman everyone wants to talk to by the pool, Nelda Linsk. Later a delightful chat with Alison Martino, producer, writer, reporter, preservationist, and a master chronicler of old Hollywood, in which she grew up as the daughter of singer Al Martino.

#136/New York Worlds Fair: Mitch Silverstein + Stephanie Bohn Mar 23, 2020

Show notes

In a world before the internet, World's Fairs were the killer app of the 19th and most of the 20th centuries. Countries would assemble at a central place for about 6 months and build pavilions, each sharing their nation's technology, culture, and national sources of pride, symbols, heroes, and achievements. If you've ever been to Epcot at Disney World, you get the idea. There were two World's Fairs in New York about 25 years apart. Much of the World's fair architecture was forward-thinking and Modernist, but only a few buildings on the New York fairgrounds survive today, some of them barely. We welcome two superfans who've been working over ten years to restore what's left, Mitch Silverstein and Stephanie Bohn, both featured in the documentary Modern Ruin, produced by past podcast guest Matt Silva, detailing the site's post-fair use, deterioration, and growing advocacy efforts.

#135/WestEdge Design Fair: Epic Spaces + Favorite Places Mar 16, 2020

Show notes

Each fall, there's a cool art and design gathering called WestEdge Design Fair in Santa Monica. It's held in the Barker Hanger, an enormous space at the Santa Monica airport. This year, USModernist's George Smart moderated two panels with some of the most well-known designers from around America and the UK. What you're about to hear is one of those panels, Epic Spaces and Favorite Places, with guests Tom Parker, Alison Pickart, David Thompson, John McClain, and Massimo Buster Minale. This is a rebroadcast of Josh Cooperman's Convo by Design, the official podcast of WestEdge, which recorded the panel. Many thanks to Josh and WestEdge for allowing us to share this with you directly. Enjoy!

#134/The Skyscraper Museum: Carol Willis Mar 09, 2020

Show notes

From London to Tokyo to Dubai, the skyscraper is a part of every modern city, but no city has done it better, or longer, than New York. Starting in the 1920's, the booming economy, use of steel, and advanced engineering took skyscrapers into reality for the first time. Hey, who wakes up one day and says "Hey, I want to create a museum"? Carol Willis does. In 1996, she founded and still runs the Skyscraper Museum in Manhattan which explains the history, allure, and future of tall buildings - plus a new class of thin and incredibly expensive structures called supertall.

#133/Almost Live from New York: Bethany Borel of COOKFOX + Author Anthony Alofsin Mar 02, 2020

Show notes

Host George Smart cashed in a few frequent flyer miles to report from New York City, doing a walk and talk around the innovatively designed COOKFOX architecture office with project leader Bethany Borel. Later on George visits author Anthony Alofsin, whose new book Wright and New York: the Making of America's Architect explores Frank Lloyd Wright's years in the Big Apple.

#132/Modernist Author Dominic Bradbury Feb 24, 2020

Show notes

What could be better than to make a living writing about Modernist architecture? Today on the show all the way from the UK, its author Dominic Bradbury, author of the new book Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Houses. Bradbury is a writer and freelance journalist specializing in architecture, design, real estate, and travel, writing over 20 over twenty books, at least one of which you have on your coffee table: Nordic Houses, Mid-Century Modern Complete, The Iconic House, The Iconic Interior, Off the Grid, Making House: Designers at Home, and his newest book the massive Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Houses. He writes for the Financial Times, The Telegraph, House & Garden, World of Interiors, Wallpaper, Vogue Living and various editions of Architectural Digest and Elle Decoration.

#131/Bigtime Architecture Competitions: Susanna Sirefman + Robby Johnston Feb 17, 2020

Show notes

Sometimes the controversy about a building, particularly about a huge museum or government project, starts way before it opens or even before a Mayor, or a Governor, a Prime Minister, or even a Kardashian moves the first shovel of dirt. Today we welcome Susanna Sirefman, founder and president of Dovetail Design Strategists, an architect selection firm specializing in design competitions. Also with us, not by coincidence, Robby Johnston from Raleigh Architecture, a North Carolina firm thinking about entering national design competitions.

Most public projects in the US are chosen by a committee that reviews architects past projects. Entering a competition is a time-consuming task generating high-detail photos and renderings that while the winner may or may not get a huge commission, there are no promises and typically no compensation for the time spent entering. The carrot at the end of the process is what propels firms, small and large, to put in the time and expense towards what could be a career-defining iconic building with an eight- or nine-figure budget. What's the future of competitions, and can small firms realistically compete?

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